“If we were used to their faces, we should think them quite handsome,” exclaimed the child. “I expect they think we’re ugly, too. It’s all a matter of taste.”
“Taste!” cried Smiler. “We don’t have to taste them, do we? It’s painful enough to look at them.”
“Do be quiet!” warned Coppertop. “If he hears you he’ll chop your head off! That’s what he’s waiting to do with mine, I expect.”
“Don’t you let him take such a liberty,” cried Miss Smiler. “Once you lose your head you don’t know where you are. And it’ll be extremely hard to put it on again.”
“Oh, I’ve had such arguments with the horrid old thing! I’ve told him all that. If only Tibbs and Kiddiwee were here to drive him away,” she added, tearfully.
“They’re not so very far away,” replied Miss Smiler, peeping round the edge of the Lantern. “In fact—HERE THEY ARE!” she exclaimed.
And, lo and behold, floating along over the river toward the Lantern, came the beautiful soap bubble, with Tibbs and Kiddiwee inside.
“Oh, where? Where?” cried Coppertop, excitedly, for she could see nothing from her side of the Lantern, and she dared not venture out because of the Samurai, who looked most anxious to prove how sharp his sword was.
“I can’t see without a head,” she added. “Otherwise I believe I’d risk it.”
Just then the soap bubble was seen by the Samurai, who evidently wondered where it had come from, and looked a trifle uneasy.